


Brothers

by Rain_cloudsx



Series: Glee X SBL [1]
Category: Glee, Struck by Lightning (2012)
Genre: Carson and Kurt are brothers, Fluff and Angst, I need more Phillips bros, Kurt Phillips, No Beta, Noooo, bold and italics haven’t copied, idk if this is good or not, idk why I’m posting this, you’ll have to read it to find out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:27:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27475759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rain_cloudsx/pseuds/Rain_cloudsx
Summary: Carson and Kurt Phillips one-shot.
Series: Glee X SBL [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2010760
Kudos: 6





	Brothers

Clover, California 

October 2000

“It always rains when Daddy is away.” The littlest Phillips sighed. He was still in the same position from the hour before; leaning against the back of the sofa to get a view of the window. He must have gotten bored with racing because now he drew with the vapour, making large swirling patterns cover the glass.

“You can’t control the weather. It does what it wants.”His older brother, Carson, explained. “Dad doesn’t make it rain. It’s just our climate.” 

“You always know everything. Knowing everything is tiring. Like growing up. I don’t want to be grown up Car. Do we have to grow up?”

The seven year old scratched his head and sighed. “We all have to grow up one day. Even if we don’t want to.” 

Kurt pouted. “But I don’t want to be like Mommy and Daddy. They yell too much and I don’t want to yell at you.” He was right - their parents argued more now, and they drank lots too. Mostly, it was just them and Grandma, but even Grandma wasn’t the same anymore. 

“I don’t want to shout at you either.”

Kurt opened his mouth to speak, before changing his mind and thinking for a moment. “Cars?”

“Yes, Kurt?”

“You’ll never leave me, right?”

“What makes you think that?”

“Well, Daddy keeps telling Mommy he’s going to leave us and I don’t want to be left alone with Mummy. She’s not well and I’m scared. I want to stay with you because you’re the best brother in the whole word and I love you.”

Carson smiled. “I love you two Kurtie.”

December 2000

Dad had left before Christmas, so it was only the four of them, he, Kurt, Grandma and Mom, in their cramped kitchen celebration. Kurt fell asleep on the sofa, his blue paper cracker-hat still hanging around his head, and Carson told Grandma the story of the boy who could flew. She said it still needed some work. Meanwhile, Mom spent most the day drinking, which was a new normal since Dad had left, and fell asleep on the stairs. Grandma soon fell asleep two, so only Carson was still awake. 

They weren’t given many toys this Christmas, nor any other Christmas for that matter, but Carson had been given a couple of books, so he wondered across the room to the Christmas tree and sat under it to read. Fairytales had always been his favorite, but he’d given all his old books to Kurt because he was a big boy now. Instead, Carson was reading poems and learning about the history of Egypt and Greece. He explored the world’s of Harry Potter and Twilight, but found he preferred the Chronicles of Narnia and the adventures he and Kurt could have behind the wardrobe. Books were how he escaped from the world, but in the future, he knew he wouldn’t be able to run away anymore. His only wish would be for him and his brother to stay happy.

February 2005 

It wasn’t fair on Grandma to have to live with them. She was getting worse and with no proper care to support her, she was sent to a home. The brothers visited her everyday, sitting on the edge of the bed and reading her stories. Kurt barely talked anymore, but he always sung along to the radio to make his Grandma smile. Carson worried about what was happening at school, but Kurt always brushed it off like nothing was wrong, so he couldn’t do anything to protect him. 

Nothing out of the ordinary was different about that Tuesday afternoon. Carson sat at the end of Grandma’s bed, ranting about how the teachers didn’t understand him and Kurt laid sprawled out on carpet as he completed his homework. Even Grandma’s confused speech was ordinary, until she started mumbling about an Ellie.

“Who’s Ellie?”Carson asked her.

“Elizabeth, my daughter. She’s a right pretty girl. She liked to write two, you know? And she sung. She played piano.”

“You mean Sheryl. Your daughters name is Sheryl.”Carson told her.

“No, no! I meant young Elizabeth. Sheryl is my oldest daughter.”

“Mom had a sister?”

Carson rolled his eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous. Grandma’s not right in the head - she’s made Elizabeth up. If Mom had a sister, we would have met her already.“

“I wish you could meet Ellie, but she was...she was a strange young girl. She didn’t belong here, she wanted to leave and explore the world, so she did. I haven’t seen her since she graduated High School. I-I tried to find her, we all did, but she didn’t want to be found.” 

“That’s why we haven’t heard of us before. She...betrayed us.”

“She didn’t betray us. Have you seen our family? No wonder Elizabeth left.”Carson told him.

“I loved Ellie.”Grandma continued.

“I know Grandma.”Carson sighed.

“She was a special girl, young Ellie. She always did what was best for everyone. Ellie loved us really, I-I know she did. You’d like her.”

“Hey, Grandma?”Kurt asked.

“Yes?”

“Do you have any idea where Ellie went? Do you still have her number?”

“Kurt, why are you asking this?”

“We can’t live with Mom forever. All she does is drink. We need to leave Cars, like Ellie did, and maybe if we find her, we can convince her to adopt us and we can live with her.”

Carson paused. “That...could actually work.”

“Really? You think we can pull it off?”

“Of course we can. Let’s do it.” 

April 2005

Carson was considering to give up the search for ‘Elizabeth Phillips’, until he realised he could use his Grandma’s name for a copy of her birth certificate. After that, it was easier to do direct searches in the web. Her birth certificate was joined to her wedding certificate, which changed her name to Elizabeth Hummel and after that it wasn’t long before he was able to find reports and... a death certificate. 

Elizabeth Hummel had died of cancer two years ago. 

“Grandma was right. Ellie was beautiful.”Kurt murmured, scrolling through the few pictures they’d managed to find of their late Aunt.

“I wish we could tell Grandma and Mom. Our family might be in scrambles, but they deserve to know of her passing. I can’t believe no one told us she was gone. We didn’t even get invited to a funeral.”

Kurt shrugged. “Mom might have turned the invite down, but that’s if they even knew about us either. Grandma said Ellie didn’t want to be found.”

“That’s still not going to get us out of this hell hole.”

“Maybe Ellie’s husband will adopt us.”

“Why would he take in two random boys he had no idea existed? We’re not his problem and we never were.”

“You don’t need to be so negative.”Kurt huffed.”And stop raising your voice.”

He sighed,”Sorry Kurtie, I just really hoped this would work. Aunt Ellie knew what it was like to feel trapped in this town and to hate our family. I thought she was going to understand why we were doing this, why we wanted to meet her so badly. She could’ve been our ticket out. It was perfect.”

“We can’t give up now, Cars. We-we can still...we can...” 

Carson shook his head. 

May 2005 

The last straw was when their Mom became a ‘mad drunk’. As long as you swept up afterwords, the glass throwing wasn’t that bad, but it was when she started hurting them that Carson decided the only way they were going to have a good home was with Ellie’s husband. Burt Hummel owned a mechanics in Lima and all he had to do was find the email address on the website and their lives could change forever. 

—————————————————————————————————

To: Hummelstiresandlube@google.com  
From: CarsonPhillips@google.com  
Subject: Elizabeth Phillips

Dear, Mr Hummel. My name is Carson Phillips and I’m writing to you about my mother’s younger sister Elizabeth Phillips. She left Clover, California after her High School graduation and I believe she was your wife. 

The rest of my known family still lives in Clover. My Dad left us a couple of years ago, so it’s just my Mom, my younger brother Kurt and I. Grandma got sick, so she’s in the home now, but she’s the most important thing to us. When she brought up having another daughter, we knew we had to find her.

Mom didn’t take the divorce well. She has medication for the depression, but I don’t think it’s working. Ideally, she needs to go to rehab for the alcoholism. All she does is drink. Kurt and I thought finding Aunt Ellie could help all of us. 

I understand this is a lot to handle, but I wouldn’t have tried to contact you if I didn’t believe this was serious. We’re not safe at home. Mom barely talks to us anymore. We have to shop and cook, while she sits on her ass all day and drinks. The only earnings we get is the money Grandpa left for us and the money Dad gives her to look after us. 

She’s been getting violent, and I know I should call child services, but I’m scared. I can’t get separated from Kurt. As you can see, my brother is all I have and I love him so much. That’s why we need family. Now Aunt Ellie’s passed away, you’re all the family we know of out of Clover. 

We can’t be stuck here forever. I want to get away from all of this and have a fresh start with my brother. I hope you consider at least coming to talk to us. I’d love to know more about Aunt Ellie, but if you could think about maybe helping my brother and I out, you would have no idea how grateful we would be.

Yours sincerely,  
Carson Phillips 

—————————————————————————————————

Burt 

Burt had always suspected Lizzy was an orphan, until she was sobbing on her death bed about all her regrets. She’d been so strong until that point, but then it all became too much. She opened up about having an older sister called Sheryl and strict but fair parents that provided them with whatever they wanted whenever they could. The only problem was their town, she hated it there, and it started to create tension in the family. They didn’t want her to leave, but everyone in the neighbourhood thought she was crazy, so there was no way Lizzy was compromising to stay in a town she hated and hated her back. 

It turned out she always regretted not keeping in touch, so when she found out she had cancer, Lizzy had searched for them on the internet and found she’d been blessed with nephews. Lizzy always loved kids, she’d always wanted to have her own, so it hurt her that she wasn’t going to be able to meet Sheryl’s kids.

When Carson Phillips contacted him, it was too much. Burt cried for the first time since Lizzy’s passing, but knew he couldn’t ignore what was going on. This was Elizabeth’s family and they were in danger. He couldn’t sit by and let something happen to their nephews. Not over her dead body.

Instead of replying to the message, he closed down shop and brought a flight for California. If Sheryl had become abusive, there was no way he was going to wait to get the boys out of there. Legal documents could wait and the authorities could get lost - he was meeting his nephews and finding a way to take them home. 

The first time Burt saw the boys, it was clear they weren’t in a good shape. The fact their teachers hadn’t noticed how underweight and bruised they were made his blood boil. Taking the boys from the house was harder then he’d planned. Sheryl had an episode, freaking out as she screamed curses and tried to attack them all. Kurt’s anxiety attack was so bad, Burt ended up carrying him to car and that was before Sheryl chased them down the street, throwing anything she could from the house as Burt drove away. 

He called the police station as soon as they got back to the hotel. To make matters worse, they didn’t want the boys to stay with him because he could be the ‘dangerous one’, but Kurt managed to convince them to let him and his brother stay in the hotel with him. A quick check of the house and the officers agreed there was a problem, so child services were finally brought in to interview the boys and get their own take on this. Meanwhile, Burt made sure the court case was as soon as possible and after a month of arguing and what seemed like an endless fight in court, they all agreed Burt could take his nephews back to Ohio with him.

Getting custody was bitter sweet. The kids looked like Lizzy. Their had her eyes and hair and face. They were beautiful. Carson and Kurt, so sweet and brave, never deserved what had happened to them. Taking custody of the boys was for the best interests of everyone. Although Burt felt terrible for taking away someone’s children, they were in danger. Sheryl needed help, but that wasn’t his or the boys faults.

Burt was going to give his nephews the best life he could. He wasn’t going to let them down. His boys needed him. 

For Lizzy


End file.
